With respect to software filtering, it’s not really software making the recommendations, so much as software helping people. It’s not entirely different than people (like Justin, or editors of the NY Times, or a friend of yours) recommending articles to you today. With Veri, we simply expand that network to every reader and publisher on Veri (including Donklephant). The result (with a little input on your part) is something akin to having a team of thousands of hand-picked human editors combing the web to find the best and more interesting content specifically for you. When you expand your network, you can not only get more personalized info, but you’re more likely to find things that you otherwise might never have seen.

Hope this helps answer your questions.

Lee
CEO, Veritocracy

Presently the only alternative seems to be the old media model where your main or only revenue comes from selling user eyeballs.

Also not a big fan of the “watch this commercial first and then we’ll show you the content ” model. But I understand that there’s really no such thing as free, and that the bills must be paid.

First, it’s free. More importantly, very few Web 2.0 technologies charge you for anything other than a premium account. And given that this site hasn’t even launched yet, I’m sure you can have faith that there won’t be any premium accounts any time soon. So the idea of being a critical consumer has changed on the web. To put it another way…is Hotmail free? Is Cnn.com free? Is this blog free?

Also, before you criticize the tech, I’d ask that you actually try it. Because the software is designed to feed you stories that you either approve or reject, and then it tailors news to you. So you can be an active editor if you want. Or you could just have it feed you stories and you can consume them without voting. The choice is yours.

Seriously, try it out. You may be surprised at how much you like it.

New enterprise marketing always wants you to try something first before telling you its cost. If you’re a critical consumer, you insist on price first.

In addition, my personal bias is that when it comes to constructing a world view, there is a lot to be said for an individual being an active editor instead of letting software cater to you.